The oil and natural-gas industry and its supporters have exaggerated the number of jobs created by shale drilling in Ohio and other states, a new study contends.

Released Thursday by a group called the Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative, the study looked at employment in the Marcellus and Utica shale states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Maryland and Virginia.

Between 2005 and 2012, shale drilling created 32,789 jobs in that six-state region; 2,791 of those were in Ohio, representing less than one-tenth of a percent of all jobs in the state, the study found.

"Shale drilling has definitely helped some small, rural communities in Ohio, like those in Carroll County, get through the Great Recession," said Amanda Woodrum, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, one of the groups behind the study. "Shale-related employment in Ohio on the whole, however, has been relatively minor."

In their analysis, the study's authors aggregated government jobs data for oil and gas drilling and extraction, pipelines and support activity. Those categories included non-shale jobs that existed prior to 2005, and the report assumes those jobs have stayed constant, leaving any increase attributable to shale drilling.

The study didn't include induced jobs, which are created when gas and oil money is spent at hotels, stores and restaurants.

The Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative includes Policy Matters Ohio, the Fiscal Policy Institute, Keystone Research Center/Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Virginia and West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

An oft-cited study by global research firm IHS estimated that shale drilling last year supported 38,000 jobs in Ohio and added $4.1 billion to the state's economy.

The same report, sponsored by industry groups, predicted Ohio could see 143,000 jobs and $18 billion in additional gross domestic product by the end of the decade.

The Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative report acknowledges that shale drilling creates jobs for rig workers, truck drivers, pipeline builders, as well as workers in restaurants and hotels.

But the industry and its allies have inflated employment figures as part of a strategy to minimize taxes, regulation and public scrutiny, said one of the study's authors, Frank Mauro, executive director of the New York-based Fiscal Policy Institute, during a conference call with reporters.

OHIO'S FUTURE

If the study's job totals for Pennsylvania (22,441) and West Virginia (6,022) — states that are farther along with shale drilling — are "indicators of what we can expect in Ohio, we need to lower our expectations," Woodrum said.

A 2011 Ohio State University study that projected 20,000 new jobs from shale drilling over the next four years is probably closer to reality, she said.

"This relatively modest level of expected employment is not worth throwing all caution to the wind and ignoring costs of industry development," Woodrum said. "Smart regulations are important, and continued investments in alternative forms of energy still make sense."

Page 2 of 2 - Shawn Bennett, spokesman for industry group Energy In Depth Ohio, said the study was too narrow in scope and received funding from a group that has supported research critical of gas and oil drilling.

Shale drilling has meant business for hotels, construction companies, truckers and factories that make pipe used by the industry.

"You have to look at how many jobs are being induced because of this industry being here," Bennett said.